


A Little Opera Goes a Long Way

by Darkhymns



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Idols, Comfort, Duet, F/M, Friendship, Pre-Relationship, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25154008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkhymns/pseuds/Darkhymns
Summary: “Colette,” Lloyd called out to her, and she faced him again. "Let me sing for you."Colette Brunel has finally moved on from her pop-idol group to more freely sing what she wants, while famous YouTube star, Lloyd Irving went from playing covers on video to going on the big stage. It was only a matter of time before they teamed up and made a hit single.But what happens when stage fright becomes a problem?
Relationships: Colette Brunel/Lloyd Irving
Comments: 7
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Idol colloyd has been on the brain for a while so this was a fic inspired by those amazing Lloyd and Colette idol outfits because yes?? As well as [this art](https://twitter.com/Sorbet_and_Rice/status/1272179893896429569?s=19) by Frayed-Symphony that's fed more fuel to it. I love the idol kids. And [even more art](https://twitter.com/Sorbet_and_Rice/status/1280994683297112064) too based on this fic!
> 
> I'd like to do more with this universe, such as what life was like with Colette singing with her pop-group (Alice from DOTnW is the leader of course) and how Lloyd is pulled into the music industry with Zelos his producer. In the end, these two just want to make fun songs about dogs (one day I'll write that too). But for now I have this so! Enjoy please.
> 
> Fic title taken from a song by Sky Sailing.

The crowd outside was getting louder. 

They had been growing within the past few hours, and if she peeked out just enough, she could see the multitude of rave sticks and cell phones that lighted each wave from the fans. Colette was used to it – she had heard it so many times! Except, it was different now. Everything was different.

Colette didn’t typically perform in Palmacosta. The port city was a long way from her usual tour gig with her group, mostly going around Tethe’alla, starting out from Meltokio before going back. But the Governor had been more than pleased to let the concert go underway, a stage already being built before it had even been requested! More truth to the very idea that the new single had been such a hit.

When she had arrived, she had heard the ocean rushing across the shore, the beaches filled with with so many people. How nice would it have been to walk across the sand, but there was already so much to prepare for. Would she even have the energy to want to go in the evening?

Colette stood within a small corner, being as small as she could while other professionals scattered all around to get everything ready. Sound check, mic check, light check, special effects check, making sure there were no sudden dips on the floor for when they would perform, that no stray excitable fan had snuck their way backstage to meet the band. (This always happened with Alice though, so Colette didn’t think it would be much of an issue now?) 

Everyone was working their hardest to get things ready and perfect – and all they asked was that she would do the same.

As Colette messed with her green ruffled sleeves, her heartbeat took over the noise. Soon it was all she could hear, all she could even _think_ about! What if she tripped on stage? (Again!) What if she reached a wrong note in her part of the song?

What if she only ruined things for…

“Colette?”

The backstage was dark, most of the technicians still further off into the sides, busy fiddling with the lights, the special effects that would take place. She saw the dazzling flash of the red lining of Lloyd’s outfit before seeing Lloyd himself. He must have found her the same way in the corner – her green and white ensemble a unique look, reflective gold bouncing off the eyes.

“Hey, are you okay? Sorry, they kept me stuck in the dressing room just to get all this stuff on.”

“Oh! I’m fine, it’s just… the usual pre-stage jitters, hehe.” Colette instantly smiled, winking at Lloyd with all the practiced flair of her idol persona. Although, she wasn’t supposed to be in that role now… She was being herself this time. Just Colette. With Lloyd. And…

“Ah, yeah? I’m kinda getting those too!” Lloyd laughed, and she heard the shakiness within its tone. It made sense for Lloyd. He had only performed a few times in front of an audience, and they were usually much smaller. His black gloved hands reached to pull back at his hair. “The uh, crowd is really loud, isn’t it?”

“Y-yeah! But that’s a good thing!” She knew it was a good thing! So why the sudden beating of her heart. Could she really be this nervous? She kept pulling at her ruffles, they were all uneven! And so wrinkled! But wait, weren’t they supposed to be?

Then she saw Lloyd reach out to her…head? She felt his fingers briefly touch her hair, feeling warm.. “Your hat’s gonna fall off!”

“Huh?” Colette blinked. “Oh, it’s supposed to be tilted like that! And it’s held to my hair with a pin.” She bowed her head slightly for Lloyd to observe. “See?”

“Ohh.” Lloyd nodded. “Sorry, I was wondering how it was staying on!”

“Yeah! I’ve worn it before with my group…and sometimes we have to do dance routines so they make sure it stays on tight!” Colette pressed down on her skirt, still seeing wrinkles and dust and whatever else. Or maybe it had just been the lights… but wait, wasn’t it dark here?

She felt Lloyd’s eyes on her still, so she turned back to him, because her heartbeat was less distracting when she looked at him. Even if it still _beat_ so much, its rhythm so steady. “I guess I’m not used to it,” Lloyd was saying. “This outfit feels really…uh, bright?” And maybe he was right, for the rose pinned on his front lapel was such a loud red, right over his heart. More than once had Colette wanted to reach out and touch it. Whoever had designed his costume had really put thought into all its details.

“It’s because of me. Remiel says I need to keep my image…” She was already on the search for a new one, as her producer was being even more controlling than usual. It had taken so much just to get this show to happen, her producer trying to block each step of the way. “I’m sorry, I really wanted it to be casual instead.”

“Heh, that’s okay though! I like that we kinda match, you know?” And when he grinned, even within the darkness of backstage, the sounds from outside reverberating the very floor they were on, she thought she felt everything stand still. “And…man, I’d wear anything just to perform with you!”

“Really?” she asked, still stunned. Star-struck. Completely and utterly. His outfit couldn’t match to his smile.

“Yeah! I still can’t believe we wrote something together!” His voice carried well through the noise surrounding them. And soon everyone would hear that voice, along with hers. Was it selfish of her to want to keep it for herself?

When in the studio together, working on their song, it had almost felt like he was singing only for her, his fingers moving over the guitar strings with barely a glance to them. To have such a voice and to play an instrument too… Why was he wasting time with her?

“Yeah, I’m so happy we did,” she said, still feeling her nerves jitter all around. “And… everyone will finally get to hear it too!”

At that moment, there was some feedback sounding off from stage, distracting her slightly. But experience told her it was a few stagehands probably setting up speakers, making sure none of the wires would get in the way of their feet. They would still need to wear their mics later, and hopefully she wasn’t _already_ wearing them and talking into it without realizing it was on, like she would do a few times before…

She shook out her hands a bit, while keeping her feet still. Her ruffles still looked so uneven, so wrinkled and frayed and… “Maybe I’m more nervous than I thought,” she finally admitted.

She waited for the moment for when Lloyd would be disappointed with her. Like the other members of her group would be, like her producer, and-

The same gloved hand, but now on her shoulder, forcing her eyes back up. Some of the lights started to flicker backstage, along with a shouted instruction from one of the technicians. They dazzled off Lloyd’s red cape, off the golden filigree that decorated the trim of his jacket.

“Hey…” he said, smiling still. She saw a little tinge of nervousness too, but not with the frustration she was used to seeing from so many people. “I’m still here.”

She nodded. “Yeah…yeah!” She nodded again, then felt she was doing it too much. “Sorry… I’m supposed to be used to this. I should…” _Be the one to help you through this instead._ How strange was it that the experienced pop singer would need comfort from someone who was still starting out?

“We…still have like 20 minutes before we go on,” Lloyd said, looking back towards the stage that was still out of sight for them, if not out of sound’s reach. “Wanna hang out in my room till then?”

Something about the way he said it got her breath hitched in her throat. But at least with all of her stage experience, she recovered pretty quickly. “Oh, I guess we could! Did you want to rehearse or…?” Sometimes she’d do so with her band, usually on Alice’s insistence which usually just turned into fights with Marta…

“Yeah, come on!” That same gloved hand moved down to grip her own, guiding her from the backstage to the hall. 

Passing a few concerned lookers (Colette hoped no one would think to pull out a camera), Lloyd soon took them to a door. There was a piece of paper on it with his name printed roughly. And also… a drawing?

“Oh! Is that supposed to be you?” Colette asked, recognizing the features, giggling at the exaggerated smile she had long grown to like.

“Agh, why’d he put it here too?” Lloyd blushed furiously as he quickly took it down from the door. “Stupid Zelos… sorry, I know it looks dumb.”

“It’s cute!” Colette announced. “Your friend is a good artist!”

“Is… are you sure about that?” But after crunching up the little poster into a paper ball and tossing it in a nearby garbage can, Lloyd tugged her inside the dressing room. “Anyway, I thought it would be good to get away from all the noise.”

“Thank you, Lloyd,” she said gratefully. 

His dressing room was a bit bare, much of it just some bags that he had taken on the trip, still in the luggage. Hanging on the wall, she could see the red jacket she saw him wear to his own shows, more casual than what he was made to wear right now. It looked so loose and comfortable. How nice it would have been to wear something like it too.

“…Also, I guess I wanna sit for a while first,” Lloyd confessed, sitting in his chair just then. Colette made sure to not mention that the same portrait of his face was also drawn on the back of the chair, though she still couldn’t help a giggle or two.

“So, which song should we practice first? ‘Star Shining’ might be an easy one to start with… Or maybe ‘Almateria’? Sorry, I should have thought it through before!”

“Huh?” Lloyd blinked up at her. “Uh, no I didn’t mean we should rehearse actually!”

“Oh…then what are we doing here?” Colette felt so genuinely curious.

“To relax, dork!” Lloyd said with a smile. Then that same smile turned a bit softer, his eyes flicking to the right side of him. She hadn’t caught sight of the instrument at first. “Well… I mean if you wanted something like that, it doesn’t have to be both of us, you know?”

She was only getting more confused by the minute! Was this Lloyd’s way of saying he didn’t want to perform with her on stage? “But both of our names are on the listing…” She brought her hands up, fingers pressing together nervously. “I mean… if you really wanted though, I can step out…”

“What? I…don’t know what you mean, I just meant I wanted to sing for you!” Lloyd reached over to grab the guitar that had been laying carefully by his seat. His fingers were already brushing across the strings, eliciting a few sounds that echoed around her.

She took that phrase to heart, hands now clasped together, the ruffles along her skirt, her arms, her shoulders, less on the forefront of her mind. “Sing for me?”

Lloyd nodded, adjusting the small pegs on the end. “Whenever I get nervous about stuff, sometimes I just play whatever. Um, guess I got it from my dad. He’d sing to me when I was little. Oh yeah, and he plays a pretty mean harmonica!” He was grinning again, planting both feet on the ground as he better fit the guitar on his lap.

Colette had never met Lloyd’s father, but the image of a younger Lloyd already tickled her. But she made sure not to mention it, because that would certainly be strange, wouldn’t it? “That’s…but you shouldn’t have to do this for me. I’m used to this…”

“Colette,” Lloyd called out to her, and she faced him again. 

His white jacket and the red rose hanging from it, black gloves already moving over the strings so deftly, just as it did in the studio that one day they had taken a chance, leaving all other obligations just to finally sing their song together after so many email exchanges and video calls. “Let me sing for you.”

She stood still. She had heard his voice dozens, hundreds of times. She had heard him through those videos before he’d get famous, hair disheveled, and his unbuttoned jacket hanging off his shoulders. His own album sat on her shelf back at home, the cover art for it so different from anything else she had seen. (So many stars and rainbows! With a nice drawing of a boy and his dog there too…) In all of those times, she liked to imagine he was singing for her.

“Okay,” she finally said, leaning against a counter, her skirt just making a tiny rustling sound as she shifted. “Um, what are you going to sing for me then?”

“Something my dad would sing to me,” Lloyd said. She thought his cheeks had gotten even redder. “So uh, don’t laugh too much. I can’t pronounce all the words right yet.”

“I won’t. I promise.” And she really did promise that. She didn’t want to ruin that smile.

The strum of the guitar, followed by his sound, by _Lloyd,_ had always felt truer to her than anything else.

* * *

Only a few minutes later, a knock on the door echoed in the room. Luckily, the notes from Lloyd’s guitar had been on their very last. “Uh, come in?” he called out, his voice still within that range from before.

Opening the door, a small lady appeared. Her sharply pink hair was in contrast to the dark-hued clothes that most of the backstage hands wore. She wore a headset, and apparently one of the giant headlights in one hand – the kind that usually weighed a ton. “Five minutes until curtain time.”

“Presea!” Colette called out to her old friend, waving at her. “I didn’t know you were working here too.”

“I heard you would be performing, so I requested to join.” Presea shifted the headlight to better fit her grip. “Do you have your mics ready?”

“Yeah!” Lloyd went to retrieve his from his pocket while Colette did the same, but Presea had gone up to them, reaching to adjust it before silently requesting for both to bend down so she could have a better hold.

“I can stall if you need. But the crowd wants you.” Presea turned away after making sure the mics were pinned correctly to their clothes. Still, Colette caught a small smile from her. “I’m looking forward to hearing you both sing together.”

Presea already left, and soon it was just Lloyd and Colette in the room, their smiles wide and excited. From the concert, from the music still bouncing around in their heads.

“Still jittery?” he asked, taking the strap of the guitar to finally pull across his back.

“Yeah! But it’s the good kind now!” Colette was standing on her toes, swaying with the beat she still remembered. “You always sing so good.”

“Ah, it was just…like a lullaby, basically.” That flush again, and she wanted to believe it was because of her. So maybe, for at least tonight, she could. “But if you liked it, then I’m happy then.”

“I am! But…I’m also happy we can sing our song live now.” She turned to him, Presea already disappearing into the swell of the backstage darkness. Colette stepped out the door, but not too far off without her partner by her side.

“Heh, yeah… I’m still really surprised Goodness and Love was such a hit though!” With that, he followed Colette out of the dressing room, both heading towards the sounds of the crowd.

“Hm, I knew it would be,” she confessed, her heart racing. Jitters. But the good kind of jitters.

“Oh? How’d you know?” And somehow, in the way he asked her, she wondered if he suspected what she was about to say… So maybe it was okay.

“Because it’s you.” That was all she would say, teasingly sticking out her tongue before taking his free hand and rushing out with him on stage. But always making sure she didn’t trip them both.

Lloyd was grinning so wide once they came out under the lights, the glare setting the red dancing on his outfit, the green on hers. The crowd was loud, but there was only one voice she would listen for.

* * *

.

.

.

Everything was so loud, so fast and so much. This wasn’t just like singing out in front of the yard, or to any of his friends that happened to swing by home for a visit.

Lloyd was completely out of his element. 

Backstage, as he tried not to get in the way of other professionals, Lloyd gripped the handle of his guitar case, wondering if maybe he had just made a huge mistake. He was by himself, his so-called producer chatting with some other people in the field, (or just woman he spotted honestly), and he couldn’t bring Noishe along, even if the dog was on the album…He’d only get frightened by all the noise, and for once, Lloyd couldn’t blame him.

“Ugh, shouldn’t have let Zelos convince me…” he muttered to himself. The guy had clear dollar signs in his eyes when he told him about where he would perform. _‘You’re a big hit now! Don’t waste it!!’_

Lloyd knew he’d do better by just crawling into a hole. Any confidence he had hours ago seemed to have evaporated once reality set in.

It was just when he heard the rest of the lineup and …. He had been stupid to think that would matter. Wouldn’t he just embarrass himself on stage? Then she would see…

“Hi, are you Lloyd?”

He turned at the sound of her voice. Was it pathetic of him to have already recognized it then? He had heard her voice a hundred times, picking it out from the chorus of other voices, of other people…

Colette Brunel stood before him, wearing a green skirt, with frilly ribbons in her hair. She had a microphone in her hand, which seemed to echo with feedback suddenly when she held it a certain way. Once Lloyd flinched from it, she hurriedly turned it off.

“Ah, sorry! I didn’t mean-“

“You’re Colette…” he said, already kicking himself for interrupting her. But his brain was going into overdrive, catching up with every admirable thought he had of her. “From the Angels group!”

“Oh! Yeah, hi! We’re performing too. The other girls are still getting ready to go on, so, I wanted a chance to talk with you!” She sounded quieter as she spoke, eyes cast downward. “I probably should have brought them with me, I’m sorry.”

“N-No, it’s okay…but…you know me?” He still couldn’t quite believe it.

“Yes, of course! I’ve watched your videos! I think they’re so good!” And with the way she spoke to him, he could almost believe it. That she liked his songs. She liked them. “I… I just wanted to let you know that your music is… it’s something I’ve needed to hear.” A pause. “Would you ever want to-“

“Colette! We’re on! Hurry _up!”_

“Ah! Okay, sorry, Alice!” Colette turned around briefly to wave away someone else. Lloyd recognized them too… but he’d never been a fan of that girl in the group. “Sorry, I need to go. But… I hope you keep writing your music! I, I really like it.”

If Lloyd died at that moment right then and there, even before he ever got a chance to perform, he’d be satisfied. For Colette to come up to him and tell him all this… “I… T-Thanks! I don’t…know what to say…”

Colette smiled, gripping her microphone, her ribbons bouncing with her motion. “Just, I hope to keep hearing you sing.” Another shout from way back, making Colette shudder. “Sorry, but good luck!”

And gone like that, disappearing into the crowd, into the bright lights and sound that made up this terrifying world Lloyd found himself in.

Yet the nerves passed through him, and his cheeks ached from smiling. _I’ll sing…but for you then._ But before he would go over his song, he’d sneak a glance at Colette’s routine, eyes for her, voice for her, and the crowd encompassing it all.


	2. Running, running to you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Months after their hit single, Lloyd leaves the music world, retreating to his house in the countryside. Meanwhile, Colette tries her hand at becoming a solo artist, finally free from an overwhelming manager and her old group.
> 
> But all she really wanted was to sing with him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a short little follow-up in the colloyd idol verse because it's fun and I love the idea of them both singing my favorite songs. So much of this is inspired by [this art](https://twitter.com/Sorbet_and_Rice/status/1282723057321336838) by Frayed-Symphony!  
> The song referenced here is [Running](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVBd-wEySU4) by the Sweeplings. Yes, I'm cheesy as heck.

Colette watched the dragonflies flit around the top of the porch swing, until the creak of the wood brought her attention back to earth again.

“I think it’s like this, what we’re going for?” spoke Lloyd, tightening the pegs before already starting.

When his fingers traveled over the strings, it was hypnotic to Colette. The sunlight seemed to make those strings look as fine as gossamer, highlighted the deft way he elicited the notes from each pull. Like a small audience, Colette sat next to him as he played just a few notes for her. No longer was she seeing him played within the confines of her small phone screen, the song coming out tinny through its speakers or through her broken earbuds, but it didn’t matter, because even through all those roadblocks, she could still hear him…

Lloyd looked back at her, pausing on one mid-note as a brief, gentle breeze picked up. “That bad, huh?”

“Huh? Ah! No, no it wasn’t!” She giggled nervously, feet shifting over the grass and weeds of the backyard. “Sorry, I zoned out a bit.”

“If you wanted to take a break, you should have told me!” Lloyd grinned, lowering his guitar to rest on his legs. “Might be hungry. I think my stomach is being too loud over my guitar.”

Colette giggled, maybe a little louder than she had meant to. Warm sunshine, the branches rustling over them from the wind – and then the happy bark from behind that nearly made her jump.

“Ah, Noishe!” she called out, her giggles now transforming to laughter. The giant dog was already bounding to her, eager for her pets against his perky ears. “Hm, you’re hungry too? I guess pets and owners really are alike, aren’t they?”

“I think I look better than Noishe!” Lloyd said with a pout, but she could tell already, that he didn’t mind, not really.

Lloyd’s home was deep in the countryside, down long and winding roads that a stranger could get easily lost on. Barely any signs to point the way, with gas stations miles and miles apart from each other. When Colette had arrived at the giant home, wooden planks living in balance with the ivy that covered its surface, she thought she had fallen into one of those watercolor paintings, with sweeping hills and skies so clear, with no static to drown out the quiet rustles of the grass as she walked.

It was here where he went, taking a break from the stage. Colette had seen the news flying around him; how the stresses of the music world had been too much for someone from such humble beginnings, how he was a one-hit wonder…but on the radio down those same roads, she had heard their track playing.

“I think we can still keep going. That last verse sounded nice.” She said so while fingers thread themselves through all that fur, just so much fur! She wondered if another song about dogs would be welcome. They already had three of those in the works…

“You sure you didn’t want to practice inside though?” came Lloyd’s voice. She looked back up at him, (so distracted by his wonderful dog!) He was still seated on the porch swing, his long legs shifting just slightly to push it back and forth. “It’s a nice day out, but you know, there’s a lot of bugs… Sorry, I probably didn’t warn you about those.”

“I don’t mind, really!” Just one giant bug earlier had nearly landed on her arm, but its surface had been a brilliant blue, refracting the sunlight into multiple colors, more dazzling then any show costume. But even as Lloyd shooed it away, she couldn’t help but admire it still. “A lot of the bugs here are really cute.”

Lloyd blinked. “You…find a lot of weird things cute, Colette.”

“Oh, but I don’t think you’re weird at all, Lloyd.”

“Yeah, but- Hey!”

What was it about this place that made it so much easier to tease him like this?

Nothing so idyllic had existed before in her world, not like this, not without the blinding lights of the stage and the heavy chanting of a crowd. And even when Colette wasn’t performing, there was the hurried tone of her new manager urging her along to escape prying eyes, or the frantic bustle of the cities she would tour in.

But here, out in what Zelos had called ‘a bumpkin’s’ wasteland’, she could hear… herself. She could hear herself for once. Was that a strange thing to think?

And maybe something about that made her a bit scared. She would rather hear the wind, the trees, and Lloyd’s songs.

Speaking of… She saw Lloyd chew on his bottom lip, eyes so fixed on her hands against Noishe’s head. The dog looked to be in bliss, paws stretched out onto the grass, his bushy tail wagging to and fro so slowly, like a pendulum. “What is it?” she asked. “Am I petting him wrong?”

“Huh? No way, you’re like a professional at it! But I mean…” He scratched the back of his head. His t-shirt was frayed at the collar, holes clearly picked by moths at the hem of it. But it was still a bright red, just like the flower he wore for their last show. “I just haven’t heard you sing yet.”

Ah. He noticed. Colette ran her fingers through a particular spot behind Noishe’s right ear. “Hehe… guess the secret’s out.”

“That’s not very much of a secret!”

“I know!” Colette gave one last pat against the dog’s head before bending to kiss him on the forehead, not minding the stray furs. Standing up, the wind picked up again, rushing against her hair and along her neck. “I think I just didn’t know what to sing yet. I’m sorry. And… it’s been so long since we’ve, you know.” Since they have truly sang together.

“I don’t get why you’re apologizing, but we can come up with something! I guess that last song was more instrumental than anything.” Lloyd picked up his guitar again, tightening another peg. “And if the bugs get too annoying, we can just go hang out in the garage.”

Colette arched her head up to the sky, picking out the shapes of clouds. Not like clouds couldn’t be seen in any of the cities she’d been in, but there was something else, like a different texture, the way she could trace out the shape of an animal’s ear within the quiet landscape that was Lloyd’s backyard.

“But I want to stay out here…with Noishe! Hehe.” She looked back down to the earth again. His russet hair was the first to catch her focus, a few shades darker than the guitar he held. “Also, I think I just liked hearing you play… Just thinking how you must have started and…ah… actually that’s a bit weird, sorry!”

“No, wait, it’s not! I mean…” Lloyd laughed, and just in that tone, she could hear each and every song she had played in the quiet of her room, her earbuds thrumming with his lyrics in tandem with the notes. “I did just start playing out here, usually when I’m bored. Broke my first guitar here even!” A pause. “Um, I was 12, just so you know…”

Colette was treated to so many images of a younger Lloyd, probably with a guitar that was much too big, and it just made sense to her, the sheer _everything_ of it. And maybe her smile was suspect, seeing Lloyd raise an eyebrow at it.

“Maybe I have something now,” she started before clarifying herself later. “To sing, I mean!”

Lloyd straightened up at the mention, the porch swing moving with him. “Is it something that we worked on before? I think you’d need to remind me.”

By singing, he meant. And where she could hear herself, underneath the sun and the dragonflies that still flitted so quickly through the sky. To the side, she could see Noishe whine when one got too close, the poor doggy. Could she tell him that there was nothing to fear from them? They were only enjoying the day, enjoying the feel of the sun against their translucent wings.

She shouldn’t be afraid either. _But this is his place,_ she thought.

Another gentle thrum of the guitar, Lloyd playing a few random notes that still naturally connected with each other. He could always do that – find the way everything was meant to resonate with each other, while she sometimes still struggled to find the words to say.

Her shoes gently walking over the grass, she went to sit down on the porch swing with Lloyd. He turned to her, still playing occasionally, letting the notes breath with the wind.

“You know, Lloyd… I don’t usually write my own lyrics. When I was with my group, we’d hire someone to do it. Or just go off of Alice’s stuff. I’m just used to singing what other people tell me to.” She tapped her fingers against each other. The boards that made up the porch was white, and only slightly polished, but it felt more comfortable than a concert seat. “I’m not really much of a songwriter.”

Kratos had said she should hire a lyricist for herself, as many solo musicians did. But, was it really the same? As when she and Lloyd used to perform, side-by-side?

The sun was very warm, but Lloyd was warmer, and just that thought made her face heat up at the mere thought of it. _Ah…_

“But you wrote a song with me. Goodness and Love, remember?” He poked at her shoulder, grinning wickedly. “You know, that big hit we went and performed just a few months ago?”

She giggled at the teasing touch, but hope what she said next wouldn’t ruin anything. “Yeah, but you mostly wrote it! And the lyrics I added might have been too silly.”

“No way, who told you that?” Another shift that got him moving close to her – enough that the head of the guitar nudged just against her arm. She didn’t mind it. “Zelos said you shouldn’t read the comments on the videos for your songs.”

“Ah, it’s not like that!” she said, thinking she knew a bit about what Lloyd meant. (She always made sure to report such comments when she would first watch his videos!). “Just… I don’t take things seriously enough.”

“Well…same here? So we’re perfect for each other.” Lloyd nodded, like he had first discovered something important. “We’re just singing songs together, and not for any album this time. Does it have to be serious?”

She didn’t know how to tell him then, not when the words _we’re perfect for each other_ kept ringing in her head like a chorus. She didn’t know how to say that his lyrics always held something else that she wished she could grasp. More than just how a dog’s fur feels, or how love could send one flying to the skies.

She knew it could do so, so much more than that.

Colette tapped the tip of her shoes against the grass, now moving her hands underneath her thighs, to press against those wooden boards in the porch. “Maybe…sometimes I want it to be?” _Or people won’t think my songs are worth enough to listen to._

But then, did she really want anyone else to hear them?

“You really don’t need to apologize…” Lloyd was saying, and she could tell he couldn’t find that one thread in her answer that would fully connect with what she meant. She still saw the gleam in his eyes, lingering there from when she had first walked up to his home’s doorstep today. And throughout the entire car ride, she had worried, worried incessantly, until her manager calmed her down. Would Lloyd really want to see her? To see the reminder of a life that he had left behind?

 _Kratos is so very kind, while Remiel was…_ She didn’t want to think on that. She wanted to think on how things seemed to be going so much better than she expected. A new manager who listened to her and even respected her, a song she made with Lloyd still high on the charts, and the fact that she could finally visit him here…

Even though he was done with the industry now, even though she was trying to go solo. Was it strange to still want more?

“…But if you wanted to try and be more serious, think I can help out?”

Colette blinked, looking to him. The sun must have moved just enough through the sky – she could see the shadows of the leaves above them, dappling over Lloyd’s face in soft patterns. An urge to touch him on the cheek nearly made her reach out. It was good that she was literally sitting on her hands…

“You always help me,” she said, but she was accepting that she liked his help. Should there be shame in admitting it? “Even if we don’t come up with anything in the end?”

“Well, we came out with something before! Things can happen more than once.” Another strum of the guitar strings, the rhythm languid and pleasant. “We can stay here all day if we need to…unless you have to go back.”

Colette remembered Kratos clearing up her calendar for the day, with such an easy flick of his wrist on the touchpad he always carried around. Not one complaint, not one small gesture to say he didn’t approve. Simple and quick, as clean as the sky above. “I don’t have to,” she said with smile. “I can even stay over!”

“Oh? Heh, like a slumber party, huh?” Lloyd increased the tempo of the song he was creating on the spot. “We could make a song about that!”

“That’s not serious, Lloyd!” She leaned against him as she said so, once again nudging his guitar, and probably messing up the next subsequent notes, but he didn’t seem to mind. He never seemed to mind.

Like she was always searching for someone like him, she was always running towards where his song played..

“Maybe…I have something,” she said, head lowered. “But you should keep playing.”

She saw the question in his eyes, but his fingers never stopped their dance over the strings. “I’ll shift gears whenever you need, okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah.” Then closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath of the air that was so…clear, carrying the scent of pollen and oak – maybe even a bit of dog, as she heard Noishe patter along the grass.

 _“When I was a young girl, I dreamed of foreign lands…”_ She opened her eyes, the sunlight already making her sleepy, her limbs heavy, but it peeled things away as if that was the _only_ worry she really had. _“To find myself a new home, with things I never had…”_

She heard herself then, bare and unaccompanied by other beats and any autotuning to make her shaky voice match. Even when they had quickly made their hit song in the studio, she was surrounded by mics and switches and so much else…

“Ah, that was just saying stuff, hehe.” She directed his gaze to the guitar, which still kept playing. “I’m not sure if it’s…”

“Hold on,” Lloyd was saying, the sharp trebles in his playing becoming more defined. “Can we…keep going with that?”

That gleam in his eyes, when they found the rhythm in the studio, when he first saw her at his door. She just nodded, worried to break this moment.

When Lloyd sang, it always felt stripped of everything else she ever heard. Even back on stage when they performed together, there was nothing artificial there. Not with him. He wasn’t bogged down with shame or worry. How could she learn to do something like that?

Did it have to do with the sun? The way the hills seemed to stretch, making her want to run to them with him?

 _“When I was a young boy, I wandered over hills,”_ he sang, and her eyes widened at her thoughts echoing with his voice. _“Looking for a place where, a future could be built.”_ He paused, eyes shifting to her as the notes slowed down. “Make sense?”

Colette nodded. “Yeah. Maybe we can keep going?”

There was a beat that both were finding, that Lloyd tried to create with a brief tap against the guitar’s surface, all while his fingers threaded over those strings. Colette tried to follow along, her feet tapping against the old, weathered floorboards of the porch.

 _“How could I have known it was you?”_ Her voice traveled along with the tune, buoyed by the wind, by the rhythm that Lloyd never let go of.

In answer, in tandem with her. _“There all along, across the blue.”_

 _“You will find me running, running…”_ And her lyrics trailed off into that flowing sunset ahead, still trying to find the next step, her heart beating quickly. This was the most she had ever done, not stopped in the middle because of something off tune, or the slight tremble in her voice. She could hear all those flaws as she sang, but Lloyd never once cut off the music.

Still, she thought she had come upon a block, mind still searching for the next line, and then Lloyd, always Lloyd, right alongside her. _“…I am running, running to you.”_

The notes held in the air, pulled along as the dragonflies rushed over the grass. She stared at Lloyd, at the way the breeze grew just a bit stronger, tugging at his hair. The urge to brush one lock from his face was so strong.

It was the sudden yelp from Noishe, from those dragonflies that chased him around the yard, that snapped Colette out of the moment – and Lloyd, who also flinched just a bit, his playing interrupted with a sharp twang of the strings.

“Uh,” he started to say, before his look of surprise morphed to delight, laughter shortly coming along. “That…that sounded good, didn’t it? Until Noishe…”

“Yeah… yeah!” Colette readily agreed, her heart still beating so much, but it reminded her of the rhythm that her and Lloyd found. “We…came up with that together, didn’t we?”

Lloyd grinned, and that grin was something she was so used to and yet not tired of at all, even as far back when she first saw his grin in his videos. “See? We can come up with some serious stuff… Didn’t even have to mention a dog in it!”

“Hehe.. maybe in the next song we can?” But there was a satisfaction just then, her throat still vibrating from what they had sung together. “Lloyd?”

“Hm?” Lloyd was already tightening up the pegs, looking ready to go again. Maybe he already had the next verse in his head? She could sometimes see the way his eyes got, their gaze intense as he thought on the next best thing. She wanted to hear all his words, the way he processed them to make them into something tangible and beautiful.

So she asked. “What did you mean by that last line?”

And maybe just then, she finally sees Lloyd hesitate, wondering on what to do or say.

“Ah…just saying stuff, you know?” Her own words presented to her, but in a different way, because it was from him. “Kinda cheesy, wasn’t it?”

She shook her head. “No.” And she was already near him, their thighs just brushing against each other on the porch swing. “I’ve always loved your songs..”

Maybe it was too much to let herself be this relaxed. But the sun in this place, in this home, was so warm and made her want to shut her eyes. Laying her head on Lloyd’s shoulder, she could focus on her breathing, on the soft chirp of crickets nearby with the slow drip of nightfall coming.

Lloyd didn’t move, just the breeze hitting against the strings, making them hum. “Same with you,” he told her.

He had never told her the exact reason why he wanted to stop, why he wanted to come back home. But maybe he didn’t know either, did he? _Maybe that’s okay._

The porch swing creaked as they sat, knowing time was limited, knowing that the sun was setting, that Lloyd’s dad inside the house would one day come outside, signaling that dinner was ready and that Colette needed to try out his famous stew – and that the day would end and she’d have to go back again, for not even Kratos could magically get rid of every schedule she had in this new life of hers – all by herself.

But for now she could stay, she thought, and Lloyd stayed with her, the soft summer breeze thrumming against the guitar strings.


End file.
